The European Union has announced new sanctions against Russian officials and Ukrainian militias, but will postpone enforcing for a week, pending new peace talks in Minsk on Wednesday, according to French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.

"The principle of these sanctions remains but the
implementation will depend on results on the ground. We will see
by [next] Monday and see how the meeting in Minsk went,"
said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius.

The foreign ministers of the 28 European Union member states
added five Russian citizens, TASS sources said. The ‘black list’
also reportedly includes 14 members of the eastern Ukrainian
militia and nine organizations the EU considers responsible for
the escalation of violence in Ukraine.

The four-way talks in the Belorussian capital between Russia,
Ukraine, Germany and France are set to take place on Wednesday.

The EU will decide whether to implement the new restrictive
measures against Russia on Monday, February 16, after evaluating
the results of the Minsk negotiations, Fabius added.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed
cautious optimism that the Minsk meeting will lead to the
“first steps... towards a ceasefire,” Reuters reports.

If a peace plan is successfully negotiated another decision of EU
foreign ministers will be required to stop the sanctions, a
safeguard demanded by Philip Hammond, the UK Foreign Secretary.

Britain had to fight a move to abandon the sanctions from Greece,
Cyprus, Austria and other countries hostile to ratcheting up
pressure on Russia.

There is a lack of unity over the need for new restrictive
measures within the bloc, with Spain evaluating the losses
suffered by the EU in the ‘sanctions war’ with Russia at €21
billion ($23.78 billion).

"Sanctions have had a heavy cost for us all; the EU has so
far lost €21 billion. In Spain, we have been badly hit in terms
of agriculture and tourism," Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo,
the Spanish foreign minister, said.

Also on Monday, Czech President Milos Zeman once again called for
Russian sanctions to be lifted, saying they aren’t bringing the
desired results.

“My goal isn’t helping Putin, but I long for solid trade and
economic relations between the Czech Republic and Russia, which
shouldn’t be hampered sanctions. Especially, if those sanction
are useless,” said Zeman, as cited by TASS.

Greek prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, also spoke against Russian
sanctions, stressing that the Ukrainian crisis must be only
solved behind the negotiation table.

“The difficult way of talks is always favorable to the easy
way of sanctions, which leads to a dead end,” Tsipras said
after his meeting with Austrian Chancellor, Werner Faiman, in
Vienna.

The Greek PM also stressed that the Wednesday’s peace talks in
Minsk must not be viewed as “the last chance” for
Russia.

Relations between Moscow and the West have deteriorated after
Russia reunited with Crimea last March and the eruption of
military conflict in Ukraine.

Despite failing to provide any convincing proof, the US and EU
blame Russia for masterminding the Ukrainian conflict and
supporting the rebels fighting the Kiev government in the
south-east of the country – claims repeatedly denied by Moscow.

Last June, Washington and Brussels switched from individual
sanctions against Russian politicians and businessmen to wider
restrictive measures, targeting whole sectors of the country’s
economy.

The Russian authorities replied by introducing a ban on food
imports from EU, the US and other countries, which supported the
sanctions.

The Ukraine conflict began last April when Kiev sent regular
forces and volunteer battalions to the southeastern Donetsk and
Lugansk regions, after rebels there refused to recognize the
country’s new, coup-imposed authorities.

The death toll in the Ukraine conflict has exceeded 5,300 people,
with over 12,000 injured, according to UN estimates.